


Dreaming the Blue

by rosefox



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Fear of Falling, Gen, Missing Scene, Nightmares, heights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-14 14:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16494053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosefox/pseuds/rosefox
Summary: Tyrion huddled on the sloped floor of the sky cell, and dreamed.





	Dreaming the Blue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Flere_Imsaho](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flere_Imsaho/gifts).



Tyrion huddled on the sloped floor of the sky cell, and dreamed.

Cersei stared at him across the table. They were in Winterfell, in what passed for a great hall. The table had been chopped in half with crude blows from an axe, and Cersei pulled free a wickedly sharp sliver perhaps six inches long. "Women do not kill with swords," she said, contemplating the splinter. "We make do with what comes to hand."

Tyrion took the sliver from her and threw it into the fire. She smiled mockingly and tugged another from the table. "We can play at this all night," she said. "You will tire before I do."

Tyrion cursed his legs as they crumpled beneath him. The agonizing cramps half-woke him and he fumbled around in the dark for a moment before the roaring of the wind reminded him where he was. Shuddering, he pressed himself into the corner of the cold stone walls. Eventually exhaustion outweighed terror and pain, and he dozed again.

He was in the sky cell still, but now it was daytime and the sky was a bright, cloudless blue. Young Brandon Stark sat on the edge, smiling and humming a little song to himself, small feet dangling over the expanse of nothingness. Tyrion cried out and reached for him, but dared not go close enough to seize him. "Don't worry," the boy said. "I never fall." And then he was gone, the wind whistling through the space where he had been. Tyrion's heart seized in his chest. He had a thought that if he just looked over the edge, he might see Brandon hanging there and pull him back to the relative safety of his cell, but he could not make himself do it. _Coward, coward,_ he berated himself, but he knew himself too well to believe, even in dreaming, that he would risk his own skin to save another.

Keys jangled, and Jaime unlocked the door to the cell. He wore Mord's roughspun clothing and his own customary smirk. Tyrion stood, relieved, but Jaime held out a hand to stop him. "I haven't come to free you," Jaime said. "I've come for the boy."

"The boy?" Tyrion swallowed, his mouth dry. "You're too late. He—he went over the edge. I couldn't save him."

"I didn't intend to save him," Jaime said. He strolled to the edge of the cell and looked down.

"Is he there?" Tyrion asked, though he knew the question was foolish. No one could survive such a fall.

"Oh yes," Jaime said. "See for yourself."

Terrified, Tyrion crawled across the floor of the cell and slowly peered over the edge.

Brandon Stark dangled from the cliff, his tiny, white-knuckled hands clutching at the rough stone. He lifted his head and stared up at Tyrion. His eyes were an unearthly blue, like the sky, the huge, endless, beckoning sky—

Tyrion screamed himself awake.

He had rolled to the center of the cell, but the edge was a good yard away; he could just make it out against the deep indigo of the lightening horizon. He lay still, breathing hard, coming back to himself.

Dawn-streaked wisps of cloud were sliding across the sky like reaching hands. It was a new day. What had Mord said? Twenty or thirty or fifty days? He'd only been there for three and it felt like an eternity.

Tyrion crept into the corner, putting his back to the wall again. He did not look out at the sunrise. He looked at his hands, his strong hands, the only able part of him, and as the morning light sifted into his cell, he began to make a list of all the people he'd like to strangle with them if he made it out of this hellish place alive.


End file.
